Browsing archives for May, 2010

It’s a common joke among UVA students to ask someone “Did you see any horses?” after they’ve been to Foxfield, which speaks to the party atmosphere that occasionally eclipses the actual races for some attendees. Observant inebriates could have checked horses off their list early if they’d noticed this bucolic scene on their way to the event. These guys seemed rather languorous compared to their stressed out counterparts on the track. While we were stuck in traffic watching a parade of plaid, seersucker, and pastel stumble its way toward Garth Road, I jumped out of the car and ran over to a fence to get this picture.

Last weekend I went wine tasting with some friends to celebrate a couple of their birthdays, and the last stop of the day was Barrel Oak Winery in Delaplane, Virginia. As anyone who follows my Flickr photostream knows, I’m a huge fan of dogs at vineyards, and this has to be the most dog-centric vineyard I’ve ever been to. Their initials, of course, are “BOW,” which they make regular use of, and they have portraits of dogs hanging up all over their tasting room. Also, if you look at this photo at full size you can see the logo on their glass features a dog looking up into a tree. There must have been over a dozen happy canines roaming around the property while their owners sipped wine. The ambiance was unbeatable, so we procured a few pitchers of sangria and parked ourselves on a picnic table to watch the sunset.

I drove past this fire station the other night and was really surprised to see that all the bay doors were open. This was pretty unusual, and since it’s been my goal to get a follow-up shot to Fire Station 4 in Red that shows the interior, I picked up my camera gear and immediately drove back to the station. As I was setting up for the shot an ambulance drove out, and then this fire engine switched all its lights on as the fire fighters stowed their gear. It pulled out just seconds later (you can see from the glow that they have a green light). Along with the earlier pic, these two photos are my fire station equivalent of Goya’s Majas ;)

It was a beautiful day in Great Falls, and except for a little rain, I can’t think of better weather to be climbing or kayaking. A few friends and I were busy doing the former, and when I wasn’t on the cliffs or belaying I jumped up onto some boulders overlooking the water to shoot whatever floated by. I got the impression that this group of kayakers was an instructor (on the right) taking advantage of this relatively placid spot to discuss technique with the other paddlers. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the concept of balance in photo composition, and I really liked how the kayaks seemed to mirror the similarly sized chunk of rock sticking out of the water on the other side of the rapids.

After a few minutes of wandering around the World War II Memorial on the National Mall I thought I should get a photo of the section for my home state. When I finally found it (I started searching the Memorial in the wrong direction, and made 4/5 of a full circle) I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Washington Monument fit directly into the center of the pillar. I’ve always been visually drawn to natural framing and I thought this added to the patriotic feel of the shot.

The Virginia section is on the “Atlantic” side of the Memorial, and let me tell you, that’s where I’d want to be as well. Not that there’s any particularly good place to be in a war, but based on my recent viewing of HBO’s The Pacific, I can state with great certainty that I’d have rather been fighting in Belgium than on Peleliu.